When my friends and classmates were reading Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Bobbsey Twins in fifth grade, I turned up my nose at their lack of imagination. Pshaw! Why read about the same characters over and over? Now mind you, I often read the first book in a series–but after that, why bother? So yes, …
We are expecting a big storm here in the Great Lakes starting midnight Sunday. Forget about the local TV weather forecasters who yell “SNOWMAGEDDON!” at the first flake–even the U.S. National Weather Service in our area says that between tonight and Wednesday we are due for 11″ of snow and the wind chill will be …
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d Alan Bradley Delacorte Press Little Flavia is growing up. In her previous adventure, The Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, as well as her new one, Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d, Flavia displays more poise and decorum than she ever thought possible. And she’s puzzled by a new-found tendency towards …
Come Rain or Shine Jan Karon G.P. Putnam It’s the month before Dooley and Lace’s wedding–Father Tim and Cynthia are living at Meadowgate holding down the fort and prepping both house and yard for the wedding. (Father Tim is charged with creating a lush, green lawn out of the weedy patches.) While Dooley finishes his …
I remember the months dragging on while I waited for another adventure with Fr. Tim from Jan Karon’s Mitford series, or, drumming my fingers with the rest of the world for another Harry Potter caper. My love for little Flavia De luce is just as abiding and it can be maddening knowing the last volume of the series, Chimney …
As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust (DRC) Alan Bradley Delacorte Press Release date: January 6, 2015 If you haven’t caught Flavia fever by now, you’re missing out on something special. Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is a chemist prodigy-turned-sleuth who has solved any number of thefts, murders, and kidnappings in her six previous adventures.  At the …
A Red Herring Without Mustard Alan Bradley I have a real problem with mysteries. I don’t like them. Add to that the fact that I’m an Anglophile and my problem gets curiouser and curiouser–for who does mysteries better than the British? Miss Marple? No thank you. Poirot? I’ll pass. Sherlock Holmes? Not so much. And I …
Hunger Gamesby Suzanne Collins This summer I read Scott Westerfeld’s Pretties/Uglies series and loved the fresh-take on storytelling in Young Adult novels. One member of our bookclub has been campaigning for Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games for a few months, and I wanted to quickly read it so I could get on to my Christmas break …
Home to Holly Springsby Jan Karon One of my secret guilty pleasures is the Mitford series by Jan Karon. Too quaint, bordering on maudlin, pat plot lines … but, oh, do I love Father Tim, Cynthia, Dooley, and all the animal and human characters that make up life in Mitford. Interestingly, I started the books …
Prettiesby Scott Westerfeld I had no intention of reading this entire YA series; to be honest, I only read Scott Westerfeld’s first book, Uglies, because I promised some students I would (see my post from June 15, 2010). But Westerfeld left the reader hanging at the end of Uglies, the publisher cunningly included a five …
This is my symphony 